Real Money

eBay to Buy Shopping.com

The sale price of $620 million gives Shopping.com shareholders a 20% premium.

Cobb said eBay approached Shopping.com only a few weeks ago. "We were impressed with what they were doing and how they structured the assets they had," he said. "The further down the path we got, the more we felt it was an even stronger fit."

Among those assets are Epinions, which Shopping.com bought more than two years ago. Shopping.com said Epinions offers 2 million product reviews from 400,000 independent reviewers. eBay, which is facing a number of lawsuits, is taking on another in this acquisition as former directors of Epinions are suing the company, claiming they didn't get a fair shake when it was purchased by Shopping.com for $31 million.

Cobb and Shopping.com CEO Lorrie Norrington both said it was too early to say whether or how those reviews and Shopping.com's comparison search engine would be integrated into eBay, or whether eBay listings would be given prominence in Shopping.com search results.

"Our intent is to open up all the assets and opportunities that Shopping.com brings to the eBay family and take advantage of them as they make sense," Cobb said.